Outages displace, upset residents

Rae Jean Nealis-Auterson spent most of her Sunday in bed under her covers. She wasn’t sick or tired; instead she was sick and tired of the lack of electricity in her Brockton Family Housing.Luckily for Nealis-Auterson, the power outage on Sunday lasted about six hours. Previous outages caused her to leave her house while Facilities Services worked to correct the problem with the circuit leaving Brockton powerless.

“We stayed at the Comfort Suites,” Nealis-Auterson said. “We had no problem with the accommodations.”

Brockton residents were given transportation between the hotels and campus via the shuttle bus, however most campus residents were able to use their own vehicles.

While the power was out residents were given free meals at the Fresh Food Co. in the Powell Building.

“What they don’t realize is that my husband works a different shift. He gets home at 11 (p.m.),” Nealis-Auterson said. “We spent a lot of money eating out (because) he was not home in time (to eat at the Fresh Food Co.)”

Also Nealis-Auterson said she lost a lot of food she was unable to refrigerate and may not be reimbursed for it because she does not have the receipts.

While Nealis-Auterson was displaced by the power outages she found it hard to find time to study. Her husband, Michael Auterson, also found it hard to find time to work on his thesis in history.

Also Robert D’Angelo, representative of Brockton housing, said he had a hard time working on his homework as well. He said many of the Brockton residents came to him wondering when power would be turned on and he could not tell them.

Claire Good, associate vice president and dean of students, said the university worked hard to get accommodations for all students without power. They reserved 60 hotel rooms last Sunday night and 108 last Wednesday.

The cost for hotel rooms and food supplied by the Fresh Food Co. was about $1,300, according to James Conneely, vice president of Student Affairs.

But Brockton wasn’t the only residence to lose power.

Amanda Farmer, a senior psychology major from LaGrange, lives in Sullivan Hall and was moved to Clay Hall when power was lost.

She said when she walked into Sullivan Hall she received a letter notifying her that she would be moving with her roommate to Clay Hall until the power was restored.

However, it was a confusing process because her roommate had not received her letter. When they went to ask about it she said there was a lot of confusion before her roommate also received her room change assignment.

Once in Clay Hall, Farmer said getting their room key was also a task, because “no one knew what was going on.”

Farmer said the room was dusty and there was hair all over the place.

“It was nice we were in a dorm room, but it was dirty,” Farmer said.

She moved out on Wednesday. Sullivan Hall closed at 5 p.m. Wednesday and re-opened at noon on Thursday.

“I didn’t care to leave,” Farmer said. “We spent a whole weekend without power two years ago and it didn’t bother me, but they wouldn’t let us stay this time.”

While some students were re-assigned to on-campus facilities, some stayed with friends, and those who were able to, went home.

Jared Burke, a freshman political science major who lives in Case Hall, drove home to Lexington each day instead of being reassigned.

“There’s nothing much (the university) could do,” Burke said. “I spent a lot of money on gas though.”

Good said she hoped students and residents understood the situation.

“I think (the university) did a good job of finding a place for everyone,” she said. “No matter what we do it’s still hard to relocate students.”